Digidesign Transformation

[ProsTools]

I hope the "new" Avid doesn't abandon the Macintosh platform like the old Avid did.

[Reb]

I have not read all of the posts in this thread, but I personally think that this is a good move on Avid's part. It will make it much easier for them to improve their product lines and support. I know that many have complained about various things with protools. Give these guys a chance to make this transition and show what they are all about. I really think this is a positive step and that Protools will keep getting better by leaps and bounds.

Let's show Avid our positive support for their hard work at making things better. I have a feeling that you won't be disappointed.

Many blessings to you all!

Reb

[TOM@METRO]

Originally Posted by palepyramid

1) If your not going to address ADC maybe include a simpler/quicker way for us to do so like including mellowmuse auto time adjuster like UAD has done with their UAD 2 cards or developing or having AIR build one . I see this doing 2 things that are beneficial - Make mixing easier for us and we become happier , we decide we can live with this for now and stop nagging you about ADC .

The ADC issue is handled with the new Reaper tool kit. Just ReWire Reaper32 into PT and you're good to go. Until we get ADC and a full 64bit DAE from AVID this Reaper solution is the next best thing.

[mitchgh]

Yes, I would really love the ability to run Pro Tools on my PreSonus interface.

[Shan]

Originally Posted by palepyramid

1) If your not going to address ADC maybe include a simpler/quicker way for us to do so like including mellowmuse auto time adjuster like UAD has done with their UAD 2 cards or developing or having AIR build one . I see this doing 2 things that are beneficial - Make mixing easier for us and we become happier , we decide we can live with this for now and stop nagging you about ADC .

Unfortunately, mellowmuse ATA and anything similar will not compensate on the actual sends themselves. Native ADC will need to be implemented.

Shane

[Tony Cariddi]

Hi everyone,

My name is Tony Cariddi and I am the segment marketing manager for pro audio at Avid. Thanks for all your posts and apologies for not responding over the weekend. The DUC is, and will continue to be, an incredible forum. There has been a lot of activity and I wanted to respond to all of the questions so went through and picked out a bunch of posts and will respond below.

Originally Posted by sunburst79

So we are moving the DUC intact to a new domain? It seems strange to kill the the Digidesign name yet leave the DUC name intact (Not that I'm complaining).

At least its not the PUG.

Yes, the DUC will absolutely live on. As you may know, there are forums for our products, such as Media Composer (http://community.avid.com/forums/), Sibelius (http://www.sibelius.com/cgi-bin/help...t.pl?groupid=3), and M-Audio (http://forums.m-audio.com/). Moving forward, these individual forums will be retained, but they will likely be organized under a main forum site. If and when this happens, your profiles and posts would all be retained.

Originally Posted by Fastermouse

Okay, here is a question.. Are you going to de-cripple LE? A bug free over all code with ADC and 64 bit capable that I can upgrade-my-hardware-as-my-budget-grows Pro Tools is what I want. Thanks Digi, much love.

Understandably, there have been a lot of questions on the future product landscape. From a marketing perspective, I wish we could tell you our plans. From a legal perspective, I unfortunately can't tell you anything. Something important that I can say is the Avid has one focus: to deliver the best and most stable solutions for audio, video, live sound, and performance. You and I will agree that it has taken us much too long to deliver on certain features and requests that we’ve seen appear over and over again on this forum. A good part of this is due to our internal restructuring process that is now complete. There will be exciting news in the second half of 2010 and I am confident that you will like what we have come up with. In the meantime I would like to humbly ask for your patience as we get our boat back on track.

Originally Posted by netnoggin

What I don't see is any acknowledgment whatsoever of the technical issues that currently abound in the Digidesign space. I understand that both strategically and tactically this is difficult to address in a communication such as this. But by not speaking to it at all, in a way you actually have taken a position that says you either aren't aware or aren't concerned. Hopefully neither is true. But I would have at least included some verbiage that hints at future products being stable, reliable, "can be counted on", etc. But instead the focus seems to be on "innovative new gear", "more great products", "expanding our product lines" - all good things to be sure. But not at the expense of stability, reliability, and dependability.

Hi NN—we are aware of the outstanding technical issues and are very concerned about how this is affecting you. The products need to be stable and this is a huge priority for the engineering team. To support this, we have engaged on a process of delivering important bug fixes as “dot” releases such as 8.0.1 and 8.0.3. Pro Tools 8.0.4 is already in the works and should arrive at your desktop in the near future. We will continue to solve technical issues this way and we hope that this new strategy will make a meaningful difference.

Originally Posted by Electric Nick

This Letter from Avid isn't a Victory. It's Barely Positive!

The Name change doesn't effect the product, it effects the marketing. Same with the website change.

Thanks for trying to Feed Us a Dream, but what I need is a Product that works! Consistently. On All OS's. Not a New Website and Name Change.

My Question to Avid/Digi is this:

"What are you planning on doing to keep your customers, when for $60 I can get Reaper which has ADC and is 64 bit already, and Logic is full Featured for $500 and I can use any Interface I want?"

I Want a REAL answer! Not Gossip on a Forum.

I'm tired of paying full price for things like Structure and then being told I can't have the fix for it cause of legal reasons.

Hi Nick. In posting this letter we thought you would appreciate a heads up on the changes to the site that are around the corner. We admittedly have a lot of work ahead of us to reach the expectations that you have, and that we have. The announcement of the new website and the new brand are not end-all solutions to our goals, but they are an indicator of what has been happening on every level of the company and of our commitment to professional audio.

I can’t speak to the product roadmap but I can say that we are committed to making the best solutions that solve our customers’ problems. We are also committed to providing solutions where there is convergence of audio production and post, video post, live sound, file management and others.

Last but not least, stability and performance are crucial to your productivity and to our success. For example, we have publicly discussed RTAS performance in the past and I am happy to say that we’re actively working on improvements. I am not allowed to discuss the exact changes and release dates, but I want all of you to know that we are taking your feedback very seriously.

Originally Posted by nycbeat

When can we expect a cs release that addresses the MANY bugs in 8.0.3?

As I already mentioned above, we are committed to providing additional “dot” releases on an ongoing basis. The 8.0.3 release admittedly wasn’t exactly our best effort to date, but we have identified the root causes for this and are working on 8.0.4 right now. As for a date I have to be vague and say “soon”.

Originally Posted by mverta

There is an alternate universe where companies set goals based on quality and customer happiness, for which they're willing to compromise on profit maximization and growth. They're healthy companies that do extremely well, they just have different priorities; the sort of priorities companies in this universe like to pretend they have in press releases.


I'm sure I represent a decent chunk of Pro Tools users who will continue to use the product so long as it does what I want it to they way I want it to, and couldn't give a crap about the parent company. If it folds, it's not my fault, and if it succeeds at the expense of the product, I'll move on. The only thing I could possibly care less about is what logo you slap on the hardware. But please don't tell me any of this is in my best interest; this is in the company's best interest. This will go better if you don't think of me as an idiot.


_Mike

Hi Mike. As you said, the relationship between you and a company continues as long as the product does what you want it to do. That’s the same way I feel about other companies whose products I use. And if another product offered me a better solution, a re-branding alone wouldn’t keep me around.
To that point, I don’t see such an opposition between customer happiness and company success. Others have said it here—when people are unhappy they go elsewhere. When they do that the company does not succeed.

That is the reason we are explaining some of the changes at the company—because it is not just about re-branding and a new website. The changes we have made affect everything from marketing to engineering to support—and all of those things affect you. The new website and the new Avid branding are the first signs of this change but there are many other great things to come…that I unfortunately can’t talk about. So yes, while you probably don’t care what logo we put on our boxes, I bet you will care about our future path as “one Avid” ;-) That’s really all we’re trying to relay here.

Originally Posted by Jeffrey Talbot

Can you PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE enable our login to steer us to an area where we can design our own profiles, complete with our own, individual system setups, so that we can easily see when and what updates are available, and how changing parts of our system affects how the individual parts work.

Hi Jeffrey. No promises at this time but I agree and would love to make this happen.

Originally Posted by gjfontenette

What does that mean for the customers that forked over 30K for expanded HD systems, with all this "DigiDesign" hardware? My guess is that we will be forced to shell out thousands of dollars more for the same hardware with a different name on it. These upgrade paths are simply unfair and getting very tiresome. I am fed up with this constant upgrading every 2-3 years when it means absolutely nothing in the end.

Hi gjfontenette. Any new products released will be driven by technological innovation. In the past we have also introduced new revisions of hardware to be compatible with new computers. Believe me when I say that exchanges like the PCIx to PCIe upgrade were nothing that we looked forward to either. We understand that this specific upgrade path may look unfair to some of you, but the reality is that we really did not have much of a choice given the change in computer technology on one hand and the cost of our DSP cards on the other.
To our defense, other upgrades, for example LE hardware exchanges, are very reasonably priced and provide great value IMO (see http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?...0&itemid=24722)

To summarize, this is not about forcing anyone to upgrade simply for the sake of a new sticker. This is about making Avid more efficient to deliver products that you and others have been demanding.

Originally Posted by vikingwiz

I hope with the migration over to Avid, folks take a deeper look at making ProTools LE run better and Windows (and OSX). ProTools is hands down the best DAW but it's bugs really make it extremely annoying and the experiance should not be drastically different on different computers which both exceed the specs for the product.

Hi vikingwiz. Completely understood. Stability is a top priority for you and for us. Hopefully our ongoing “dot” releases will deliver the goods for you!

Originally Posted by John_Toolbox

I've worked in many industries, for companies big and small. One thing that I always notice when a company becomes too big: there are many levels of wasted labor, people's jobs become so superficial that most of them have no idea what the company even does to make money... they just know that they need to get x amount of work done in a week and that they need to be there from 9 to 5. Don't make this same mistake, keep everyone in the loop and make sure that all of your employees understand the big picture.

Hi John. This brand change is part of a much larger transition that started over a year ago to make Avid leaner and more streamlined. I like your point about keeping everyone in the loop because that’s exactly what we are trying to do here ;-)

Originally Posted by gjfontenette

Digi or AVID will no longer support Digi hardware within a year of this new launch, and all those with old systems will be FORCED to comply or face the specter of having invested time and money in a defunct company that could care less about their company or project concerns. The paradigm shift has already begun, and Digi got fat and arrogant. Too arrogant to ask this of thus far loyal customers.

Hi gjfontenette. We will not cut off support for products based on the brand transition. If you look back, we have supported products long after there were computers even available to run them. For example, we were releasing software updates for Mix hardware for years (4 years I think) after we introduced HD.

Originally Posted by mverta

Quantity and quality are mutually exclusive. You already know which one AVID has chosen, so my recommendation is to alter your expectations for the future. I'd rather be pleasantly surprised than disappointed.


_Mike

Hi Mike. I think you can raise your expectations of Avid. We aim to give you both.

Originally Posted by L-Dogg

I personally care less about the look of the DUC than I care about the future of 002/003, PT LE and Eleven Rack. The open letter is great and all but nowhere does it say that these hardwares and Pro Tools LE are safe, as far as being around in the near future.

Hi L-Dogg. They are safe! The brand transition will not accelerate the any product into end-of-life. Avid is committed to making the coolest and best audio tools available. Expect new innovations and continued support. We honestly try to maintain older products for as long as we can. Sometimes, however, computer technology just moves on and we can either fall completely behind or cut the cord on older products such as PPC Macs. While we cannot avoid the pain that is associated with the end-of-life of a product or support for a platform, we do our best to let you know in advance so that you can plan ahead accordingly.

Originally Posted by Fastermouse

This was 3 days ago, and on April Fool's day. Not one reply or statement since. I call Tony Karate on this one. Same company, same Bull.

Hi fastermouse—nice to be missed! ;-)

Originally Posted by airon

New Protools versions that are anything but patchwork software are years away!! Avid does NOT deserve the benefit of the doubt any longer!

Hi airon. The announcement was a heads-up on the coming of the new website and of the new branding. The real changes started a year and a half ago—it isn’t something we are just starting now. As for the “patchwork software” we are reacting to a top request by our professional user base. You deserve a well functioning and stable system and we intentionally prioritized certain bug fixes higher than flashy new feature development. You may disagree with me on this one, but I bet that there will be many other users who welcome this change in strategy.

Originally Posted by Shan

For how long?

Shane

To infinity, and beyond…. Seriously, the DUC will stick around. What would we do without you?

Originally Posted by zeruck

Personally I would like you to address the problems with v8 as a matter of importance not the navigation of the pages on a web site. How about a re write of the base code of pro tools so it is not piggy backed on old OS9 code which hinder it operation.

Hi zeruck. Consolidating the website and rebranding is not the end-game here. The products are the proof. Our goals are to deliver improved solutions and stable releases.

Originally Posted by cparks100

Pro tools support is the pits and I have never gotten a reply back from support, so teaming up with Avid it can only get worse. If it wasn't for the DUC there would be no support. So thanks to everyone here for trying to keep Pro Tools LE alive.

Hi cparks. I am very sorry that you have had a bad experience. If there is any way we can turn this around please feel free to email me and I will get a support rep on the phone for you.

Originally Posted by Neily

Can we please keep the duck logo?

Under discussion…. ;-)

Originally Posted by Fastermouse

I am bumping this thread to show that once again Avid has created another Tony Karate. They invite us here to ask questions And Then Never Answer.

And of course they are keeping the DUC. It is their only customer support and they don't have to pay the staff!

Hi again fastermouse! You guys really missed me? Sorry again for the delayed response. It was Easter weekend afterall!

Also, if you are really having trouble reaching customer support please let me know via email and I will make sure you connect.

Originally Posted by flautista

People out side USA we still have acces to MI Digi an all products there??
And keep our Account?

If you are referring to you’re my Digi account, then yes. All info on My Digi will be ported over with the website and brand transition.

Originally Posted by nerhal

corporate takeover. this is disappointing. I will be moving on to other companies products. unless of course this is a good thing?

Hi nerhal. This is a very good thing. We are a stronger, leaner, more efficient organization. Our engineering can now work with shared goals in mind and benefit from eachother’s work, instead of competing with it after the fact. There are great things ahead.

Also, keep in mind that the corporate takeover actually happened 15 years ago when Avid acquired digidesign back in 1995.

Originally Posted by MoritzRock

Digidesign or Avid? just a name!!

Pro tools? now this really is the focus point! " PRO TOOLS "

What really matters at the end is the quality of the products, overall support and working with the people that actually use the products to make a living for improvements etc which should be addressed quickly unlikely it has been.
Word of mouth keeps everyone on top in this game.. or sinks them.

Hi MoritzRock. I couldn’t agree more. We have worked closely with hundreds of customer like you who want to make a difference in the solutions they use everyday and they have told us the same things. The proof will be in the products.

[Rick Sanchez]

Originally Posted by Jeffrey Talbot

Can you PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE enable our login to steer us to an area where we can design our own profiles, complete with our own, individual system setups, so that we can easily see when and what updates are available, and how changing parts of our system affects how the individual parts work.

The current "approved" list is a nightmare... between computer hardware(G5, MacPro), computer OS (10.4, 10.5, 10.6), PTHD program (7.x, 8.x) Digi hardware (Mix, PCIx, PCIe), the possible combinations are overwhelming.

I'd like ONE PAGE that has MY current system on it, with any and all upgrades, both hardware and software that are available to me.... and pop ups that will show how changing one aspect affects the others. If I own PCIx hardware and a G5, knowing that upgrading to a newer MacPro won't work should be easy, yet it is just about impossible now with the current "approved" page.

Probably the best request I've seen here. Ditto X 100

[SekondThought]

Originally Posted by Tony Cariddi

Hi everyone,

There will be exciting news in the second half of 2010 and I am confident that you will like what we have come up with. In the meantime I would like to humbly ask for your patience as we get our boat back on track.

That's excellent news and it's good to know in advance.

From my side of things, I had been interested in Pro Tools since the Digi 001, but my first real experience of Pro Tools was Pro Tools Free (an 8-track version of LE 5, if I recall). I was a Logic Gold 4 user at the time and kept loading up PTF all the time until I eventually switched and bough the first generation Mbox in 2003. I've had quite a few Mboxes since then, but feel in recent times that the line has slipped behind the times a little.

It felt very exciting when I first bought into Pro Tools seven years ago, but the design and spec of current Mboxes seems lagging behind next to other USB (and entry point FireWire) interfaces on the market today (Mbox 2 being almost 5 years old now).

Pro Tools 8 was a great update. I really appreciated Boom, Vacuum and so on, because (and I say this 100% selfishly) they were perfect for my needs. However, I would like to see as radical and feature packed an update to the Mbox interfaces as we've seen to the software to make them on a level again. At the moment, the software seems ahead and the I/O seems somewhat behind.

I know you can't give too much away right now, but hopefully...

[rojocinco]

I have a question for my actual problem with my Protools HD:
I have an HD 3 Accel PCIx with an old Mac G5 that is crashed. I gonna buy a new MAc Pro but I can´t use the same HD PCIx Cards because the new Macs have PCIe , and the PCIx to PCIe exchange is too expensive for those same old DSP cards (3000€). So I need to know about the future: Will you launch a new modern DSP hardware system to exchange for my old Pcix HDs with a good price??
Isn´t it yoo much time (years) with this obsolete hardware and exchange prices??
How could i get a solution to work until you get a move?

I´m thinking on reselling my HD system and forget it....

[stonedef]

My confidence in Digi, their ability to release working software that is reliable in critical situations and their overall support has been eroded to the point where i no longer trust them to be there when needed.
Having been making my living as an audio engineer and invested heavily in the past 10 years with HD3, multiple LE systems, control 24 etc etc it is truly disappointing to now be stuck with all this gear that Digi doesn't want to know about and wont support unless i spend thousands and thousands of dollars for hardware upgrades with no increased functionality.
Creating products such as the control 24 which they no longer support but was built so that it could not be used as a controller for other software (no midi control just ethernet propriety), leaves me feeling very ripped off.
As mentioned earlier in the forum, the current flexibility of PT hardware is falling behind pretty much all competitors, so with Avid absorbing Digi and focussing all its PR on websites (but not even that is gonna be working for us 'non-US' clients for a while) and advertising, its time to say goodbye to PT and hello to Logic, Sonar, Nuendo etc unless dig comes out with some real support.
As an engineer doing lots of broadcast and live albums, i was a huge fan of PT, but need more than "its gonna be exciting, but i cant tell you anything" type spin.
C'mon Digi, get real, focus on what matters to your customers who give you money! Stop being corporate and start being useful again, it used to be great, now its just a spin machine.